What if You Are Afraid You are Boring

What if you have something important to communicate with someone, but you're afraid that you're boring? Well, guess what? It is a real problem. It's a legitimate concern because, let's face it, most people can be boring at times. And certainly most people who give speeches, presentations, PowerPoints in the business world are really boring. That's why everyone carries around their cell phone and pulls it out right before most speakers start, is because people have an expectation of being bored by most presentations. So if you're concerned you're boring, you might be. For starters, let's look at how you actually start. Most people start business presentations by saying things like, good morning, I'm happy to be here today. My name is this, my title is this. Today I'm going to talk about X, Y and Z. Before I do, let me tell you about the boring history of my company. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, that is how most people start any kind of formal presentation. Guess what? It's really boring. So how do you start? You might anticipate. I say start by telling a joke. No, you don't have to. Just start by saying something interesting. Say something of value to your audience that isn't about you. Give them value, show something of interest to them. Then they'll want to learn more about you. You can talk about yourself later. The other big tip is whatever you have to say, whether it's to one person, a two minute conversation, or a two hour keynote speech in front of a thousand employees, practice your speech on video. When you're playing back the video every so often, ask yourself, so so what? Why should I care? If you don't have a good answer for that, maybe it's time to change the speech because it might actually be boring.